The present disclosure relates generally to the prediction of vehicle operator destinations and in particular, to a method of suggesting the likely path of a vehicle based on previous paths taken by the vehicle operator.
In recent years, navigation systems mounted in vehicles for displaying a map to vehicle operators have become more common. Most navigation systems include a device, such as a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, for determining the exact location of a vehicle. GPS refers to a collection of satellites owned by the United States Government that provide highly accurate, worldwide positioning and navigation information twenty-four hours per day. An increasing number of affordable GPS receivers are being manufactured for consumer as well as non-consumer use. GPS receivers are continuing to become less expensive, smaller in size and able to support more features. Many of the vehicle navigation systems that are currently being manufactured include GPS receivers.
A destination point for a vehicle is typically set in a navigation system by a vehicle operator or by a passenger using a remote control device or the like. The setting of the destination point can be based on items such as: the name of a town or region; a telephone number; or a pre-selected geographical point from a list of pre-registered geographical points. Current navigation systems require the use of a map to determine routes and to perform navigation functions. A typical navigation system includes a database or access to a database that contains streets and other geographical landmarks. These streets and other geographical landmarks are correlated to GPS coordinates received via a GPS receiver in order to determine the physical location of a vehicle in terms of map locations.
The ability to know that a vehicle operator will be taking a particular route, coupled with vehicle status information and environment data (e.g., traffic, weather) can be utilized to direct the vehicle operator to particular locations (e.g., next gas station) and/or to avoid particular locations (e.g., heavy traffic, bad weather). A disadvantage of using geographical landmarks and mapping software is that the database holding the maps can require a significant amount of storage space and the map becomes out of date as roads and landmarks change. Alternatively, a vehicle operator may subscribe to a central map database instead of having the map database located within the vehicle. This approach, of subscribing to a map database, can become costly due to wireless access fees and database fees.